U.S. Covered Up Gang Rape And Detention Of Halliburton Employee
By Logan Murphy Sunday Dec 09, 2007 2:48pm
Via ABC News:
A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.
Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court against Halliburton and its then-subsidiary KBR, Jones says she was held in the shipping container for at least 24 hours without food or water by KBR, which posted armed security guards outside her door, who would not let her leave. Read on...
Unfortunately, the scumbags who committed the rape and their employer will most likely never be charged with their crimes, thanks to huge loopholes in the law that exempt contractors in Iraq from U.S. or Iraqi law. Jamie has founded a non-profit organization to help other women who have been raped by contractors in Iraq called The Jamie Leigh Foundation. Since our government is dragging their feet, Jamie's only real option is a civil lawsuit - I wish her well.
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This is not good news for the Haliburton Administration.
poor girl.... why the hell would you go to iraq in the first place?
there are other jobs.
unspeakable
Good luck Ms. Jones.
What a bunch of lowlifes. cheney, bush, and all their stinking cronies should be stripped naked, waterboarded, locked up in a shipping container like sardines, and airdropped somewhere in the middle of the ocean as fish food.
I guess Haliburton likes to take after they're old CEO Cheney.
You know, being lawless and all. I hope she (bleep) the
(bleep) out of them in court.
Halliburton's lawyers are fighting to ensure that the case goes to arbitration instead of a judge and jury, so that Dick Cheney won't have to lose any money just because this woman was gang-raped by his employees in the war zone he created.
But wait, there are no laws for contractors in Iraq. They can do whatever they please. The Iraqi government can't prosecute them nor can the military.
Shame on this women for creating the temptation for these poor, misunderstood taxpayer-funded war profiteers.
Shes 22? How is she 22 and working in Iraq for Haliburton?
Is this really legit? Could someone confirm this? I thought there were safeguards to stop young pretty good looking girls from getting into positions like this.
And if we call these guys mercenaries we are derided as unpatriotic.
She was raped and now screwed.
Haliburton has license 007. They get away with murder. Why not rape?
Of course, there should be no immunity for crimes of this nature...and management is responsible for the coverup. They need to be tried, convicted, jailed. And yes, the shareholders can suffer too...if you invest in violence, you should reap the appropriate returns....
(not an eye-for-an-eye...that's savage. I mean they lose their money...)
Pete @ 8:
WHAT!? Are you saying that the fact that she is young and pretty has anything to do with this case? What percentage of this crime do you think is her fault because of her looks? You make me sick.
This is just too sad.
This is HORRENDOUS!!!!
I'm not a legal scholar, but why isn't the immunity granted to Halliburton et al. not unconstitutional? How can this administration just create a legal vacuum like this? If anybody knows the legal justifications for this please oblige. Otherwise, I think she should also sue the shit out of Bush directly and let the Supreme court decide the legality of these blanket legal protections.
Right wing douche bags arriving to blame the victim in 3...2...1...
Pete @ 8:
Rape is about anger, not sex. Looks have nothing to do with it. And this sounds like mob action, which brings a whole other set of [unchecked] behavioural stuff to the table.
You may want to do so reading on the psychology of rape. You seem to be woefully undereducated on the subject.
I wonder how long until Limbaugh will call her a phony rape victim? Anyone got the over-under on that bet?
TimV @ 17:
You mean he hasn't yet?
TimV -
Americans who are overseas and not government employees generally can't be prosecuted by American authorities.
Paul Bremer issued a law exempting contractors in Iraq from prosecution by the Iraqi authorities for what they do during their official duties.
My DEEPEST sympathies to this brave woman. Thank goodness she is taking back her power.
BTW, Halliburton warned her that she would be "out of a JOB" if she sought medical treatment???? WTF??? That was probably the least of her worries.
OT but not such a downer is this
Cindy Sheehan Launches Campaign to Unseat Nancy Pelosi
SF news report
Hey, rape is fine when the perp is white. Prisons need innocent black males to take the fall for everyone else.
Considering just how far this ghastly situation went I'm actually glad that guard gave her that cell phone to call her dad to let him know what happened.
She may of not survived this ugly incident if nobody knew and her dad didn't make calls on her behalf.
That is frightening.
And Barrett D. @ #19
How sensitive of you.
Eric Jaffa @ 20:
So, okay, presumably the exemption of overseas contractors from prosecution by American authorities arose due to jurisdiction issues: i.e.- the US government would be stepping on another sovereign nations toes if they held their citizens to US standards everywhere in the world. Then in what way did Bremer have the right to dictate the jurisdictional powers of Iraq? Once the CPA disbanded, it's jurisdiction and authority ceased. It seems as if this kind of logic creates recognized lawless-zones. What if Halliburton/Blackwater contractors are deployed on US soil, but they are non-US citizens, yet come British official decides that they are exempt from prosecution. Would that still hold? It seems to go blatantly in the face of international law.
Bush, when informed of the rape, said 'It's one of the unfortunes of war'.
Then, apropos of nothing, he repeated his mantra, 'Childrens do learn', then caught himself, said 'Heh,Heh,Heh', and corrected it to 'Children does learn'.
Proud of himself, he left the stage by walking through the wall.
'What'll we drink to now, Georgie?'
With all due respect, when you lay in the mud with pigs, you have to expect this sort of shit.
What about the 14 year old Iraqi girl that got raped and murdered. Where is her fucking foundation.
No sympathy here......go talk to Prince or Bush...they are youd daddy....not the usa...sistah
AHHHHHHH!!!
I can't take it anymore! This administration is deplorable and should have been gone so long ago it is not funny!
Are you happy Nancy Pelosi? Thanks so much for taking impeachment off the table....really, just think of the horrible mess it would have caused for you and your co-workers.....NEVERMIND THE AMERICANS BEING SHOT, CHEATED, AND RAPED DAILY!
James Izzard @ 28:
Your kidding right? So it's HER fault that she was brutally raped because she went to work for a American contractor? WHO is writing this crap? Cheney himself?
YOU ARE EXACTLY WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY!
YES i AM YELLING AT YOU TO LEAVE NOW TROLL.
TimV @ 17:
I think those are even odds, for tomorrow. Brent
Compassionate conservatives at work again...
I'm sure congress will ignore it also.
I used to be proud to be American.
James Izzard @ 28:
So what you're saying is that this woman deserved to be repeatedly raped because she was working for Halliburton? I'm sure her parents will take comfort in that fact.
How very humanitarian of you.
me and myself @ 31:
Man, since this has been proven to be true they should really do something about this.
Wait, you mean it hasn't? Well, go ahead anyway, since that whole thing about innocent until proven guilty doesn't really matter. Anything to destroy your enemies, right?
"Learn to fucking type."
Mister Pink
What is even more sickening are the comments posted on the ABC site (linked from her site). They are calling her names and calling her a fraud.
In the righties' minds (oxymoron) this has somehow become a "moonbat" issue where the "evil" libs are propping this story to take attention away from Bush's ass kicking of the democratic congress! No crap...this is what is being posted over thee! Truly disgusting.
I should add I'll gladly join the lynch mob if this is proven to have happened.
bobaloo @ 35:
Oh you're right. With her full access to the court system the legal process will surely get all the facts straight and will prove her right or worng. Oh wait... that's the whole point with this story!
There is no innocent until proven guilty when you lose the ability to prove someone is guilty! Get it?
Barrett D @ 19:
She was raped, and you type "i'd tap that"? You f cking Neanderthal!
Just more Republicans eating and abusing their own. No big deal.
Don't wanna be raped in Iraq? Don't go to Iraq.
Having to call the State Department to rescue an American being held hostage by Americans?
Surreal.
Looks like this poor young lady just learned a very important $6 figure lesson, that some things just aren't worth it, no matter how good the money is.
The thing I have a problem with is how any female, regardless of her looks, that has grown up in this American culture in the last 20 years, (knowing how messed up we are as a people when it comes to male/female relations), can go into an environment like the Green Zone and not expect something bad to happen?
Seems a little obtuse, or willfully ignorant on her part to me.
That being said, I hope they nail this gang of cowardly gang-rapers to the effing tree.
~Nyc
I think that most of the media is owned by something like 5 companies. Often with them being owned by Defense Contractors or members of the Military Industrial Complex. It's no wonder we don't hear half the stories or get the reporting a democracy like ours needs. It is therefore in my opinion, the duty of the blogs to unearth these cover-ups and expose them to the public of America. Thank you for this post. I hope we continue to expose cover-ups by these war machine asses no matter where we find them. Peace.
Shows how easily someone--even a pretty, white, young, Christian Texan--can be disappeared by shadow-government goons. Too bad the wingers will start stalking her in 3,2,1...
Yeah, jury is out on this one.. Oh wait, there is no case, courtroom, judge, investigation; who needs a jury? I would really love to be a fly on the wall at these companies (KBR, Halliburton..) to get a real picture of everything that they're up to. I know it's hard to believe but I just don't trust people the same any more since George Bush became king.
Dustin de Wynde @ 41:
Absolutely.
Where was Daddy's sage advice before she upped for "hazard duty"?
This story needs to be pursued further. If this kid is telling the truth -- and there's nothin in the ABC story to suggest that she's making any of this up -- Halliburton needs to pay dearly and be exposed as a low-life haven for scumbags. And that should be the beginning. The crap that that moron Bremer laid down for this kind of human garbage -- that they are all immune from Iraqi law -- needs to be lifted, and the perps need to be identified and exposed.
I hope to God that someone is protecting the Halliburton "guard" who gave her the cell phone. He'll be crucial to the case against the gang rapists. I think someone above said it right: if she hadn't been able to call her father, she'd be dead. The rapists knew that she could identify them and the only way to silence her would have been to murder her. That CONEX she was in would have been shipped off shore and dropped into the sea.
I'll be very surprised -- and doubly sickened -- if this story just fades away. The rapists are uncomfortable right now, of course. The fact that she WAS locked in a CONEX and that she showed physical evidence of gang rape has to haver them looking for a way out. I only hope that the State Department doesn't provide one for them.
ahem. I'm not that other Pete that posted upthread.
Anyway, I am (like Izzard above) having trouble mustering sympathy for anyone who works for a company of rapists and pillagers like Halliburton / KBR in the first place. As much as I wish that she had not been raped, anyone who works for that corporation, exploiting and war profiteering, adding to the hell that is Iraq... well, like I said, my sympathy lies elsewhere.
The only good thing that could possibly come out of this is if it wakes America up to the fact that Halliburton (on the whole, all of them, even the victims who work for the company themselves) are swine, making ungodly amounts of money off of the suffering of others.
>Halliburton needs to pay dearly and be exposed as a low-life haven for scumbags
Mean while back in la la land !!
since U.S. contractors in Iraq can't be prosecuted, maybe she could slips some bills to some friendly Blackwater employees willing to do a little public service on the side.
biff diggerence @ 45:
Halliburton doesn't advertise that contractors aren't subject to laws when they sign up. So I can see how an American might assume that other contractors won't rape or kill them for fun. But the fact is that a contractor can kill other contractors or even visiting White House employees without breaking any laws.
And I think our Congressmen and Senators need to keep that in mind. Dick Cheney could have them killed by Halliburton Employees, and it would be legal to do so.
It's kinda hard to get past anything other than "US Covered Up Gang Rape and Detention of Halliburton Employee", which basically implies that it's a closed case. I'm very sympathetic to this woman either way. My point is that between Beauchamp and Haditha, we may want to be a bit more careful about unproven allegations from now on. Get it?
biff diggerence @ 45:
What is wrong with you guys? The 'something bad' that happened to her was not an explosive device or a shooting. It was a gang rape committed by her co-workers! Change the scenario a little. A female firefighter is cornered in the baracks and raped and detained until she manages to call for help. A female bank teller is locked in the vault while her male co-workers serially rape her. Does that make you feel any different? If our 'American' values don't apply over seas, then they don't apply anywhere. It shouldn't matter where she chose to work. That is such a BS blame the victim mentality.
bobaloo @ 51:
The term 'Guilty', implies that a crime had been committed. In this case their are no laws, so rape and murder are legal. So they can't be guilty. They broke no laws.
Fanon @ 52:
It doesn't even have to be a woman. If a man were gang raped, he'd be in the same situation.
Why does she hat america?!@1?!
Bravo Fanon!
bobaloo @ 34:
Wait, you mean it won't be proven one way or the other, because Halliburton is demanding that the case go to arbitration instead of before impartial fact-finders?
Well, go ahead anyway, since supporting George W. Bush at all costs is the only thing that matters, right?
So, how soon do the rapists get their Medals of Freedom?
Rev. Hucklebee, (R) Compassionate Christian Presidential Candidate from AK would ask:
"Is there any way she could be related to Bill or Hillary? That should be checked out first."
Fanon @ 52:
A firehouse, a bank ?
The point is that it's freakin Iraq.
An every day occurrence. The only difference is that she's Caucasian and Christian.
The part about making oneself as a female vulnerable to a potential violent attack by virtue of being in a dangerous area such as the "Green Zone" does make sense.
But it doesn't make it right and doesn't justify it.
This woman deserves to be heard and deserves justice.
Rusty Shackleford @ 57:
Halliburton can just bill the cost of litigation back to the taxpayers, with profit. After all, they are on a 'Cost Plus' program, meaning that the more costs they rack up, the more money they get. Settling lawsuits can mean huge profits for them. So they owe it to their stockholders to get sued and lose a lot. It is a fiscally responsible course of action under their business model.
I was watching Naomi Wolfe's talk last week, and she discussed the steps that dictators take to 'test the waters' for their take over, and one of them is a paramilitary force, exempt from the law, who has license to terrify by whatever means necessary, including torture and rape. KBR employees started with the local population and did not receive much censure for rape, murder and theft, so the elements in the company that are inclined that way (and there may be a certain amount of tacit encouragement for this kind of thing) will continue to escalate. This represents a next step; since they didn't get in trouble for raping non-citizens, now they will try citizens. And, gentlemen, don't forget you're just as able to be raped; in fact, in some cases, easier because you don't expect it and/or haven't been taught to fear rape or be careful of other men or women. (We can do it, too, gents.)
Blaming the victim, pointing out how 'dumb' she must be to take the job, etc is tacit approval for the rape. Would you stand there and watch her get 'punished' for being stupid? Would it make you... happy?
There is no place, no time and no circumstance in which it is acceptable to rob another human being of their sexuality (and even when or if Mrs. Jones recovers from the experience enough to be comfortable around groups of men, there is a certain innocence that comes along with not knowing what it's like to be the target of violence. Experiencing something like that has profound ramifications on the rest of your life.)
I am frankly disappointed with the 'no big deal' responses, as well. This is an escalating pattern of violence that is not being checked. There is absolutely no excuse for this being a civil suit (which implies that Mrs. Jones is suing on property rights, not human rights); it involves a government contractor and basic human rights. The government's job (that they aren't doing) is to provide advocacy for the citizens, among it the protection of the right to not get raped.
FYI-- I was just as pissed over the theft and the rape and murder of the 14 year old Iraqi girl (and her family.) This shit is just ridiculous, and there's no sense in those of us who are not trolls acting like Mrs. Jones somehow merited this. For shame!
[deleted - we're just going to end this now.]
I'm really surprised at some of the comments in here. Look, the kid says she was raped. The ABC sotry -- and admittedly, it's not been corroborated elsewhere yet -- points out that she was examined by physicians who found her physical condition to be conisstent with a victim of gang rape. The ABC story also avers that the State Department became involved and that she was, in fact, located in a CONEX container.
What this suggests is that he story is very likely true. Now, in the event that she somehow made all this up, somehow stole someone's cell phone to make a call from a CONEX container where she was hiding, somehow caused her private parts to be bruised consistent with forecable penetration, in that event, I'd hope that she is punished severely.
But in the event that she is telling the truth, she has been tortured and humiliated by low life scumbags and held prisoner, possibly for their further sadistic depredations and very possibly so they could figure a way to kill her. In that case, no one has a right to blame her for what happened. Damn, I though only right wing jackasses blamed rape vicitms for the crimes perp'ed against them. It seems I was wrong. "Daddy's sage advice" had nothing to do with the sadistic tortire this woman was subjected to. Anyone who thinks she is to blame for what happened is just so flat out ugly wrong it sickens me.
"She had it coming"
~Rush Limbaugh, 12/10/2007
I was proud to be an American, long ago when I was young and naive. Now I refer to my fellow citizens as Amurrycuns, and I judge all of you rather harshly. A large percentage of the electorate enabled this group of thugs to steal not one but two elections. In a sane universe, or in a country with a free press there would have been rioting after the court appointed the "president" back in 2000. Instead i have to look at news stories like this one, usually in a foreign press.
Fanon @ 52:
I'm not blaming the victim at all. I am saying that American culture has gone off the rails to the point where all the scenarios you are presenting are not only plausible and probable, but have likely already occurred.
More than once.
American "values" indeed.
That's why I say that she should have known better to go into an environment where the thin veneer that we have in the States of being civilized is completely removed.
Haven't been over to Malkin's malevolent cesspool yet, but judging from some of the wing-nut comments on ABC it looks like they got themselves a nice and meaty bone to play with for a while.
Not a one of them says anything about the State Department detail that was dispatched to rescue her from that shipping container.
That's kind of an inconvenient detail, if I were them I'd ignore it too.
Wow, just wow.
She may not get her day in court, but who knows this may work in the Court of Public opinion, and yes, that outcry would be driven by her looks.
~Nyc
PS: As far as the Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi rape incident goes, check out Brian DePalma's Redacted.
bobaloo @ 68:
*sniff sniff* Did the drugbaugh comment hurt your widdle feelings, cupcake?
bobaloo @ 68:
Sadly accurate.
mouthyb @ 63:
You're right. And since Blackwater is now doing work in the US, we should expect that this could happen to any of us. After all if you live in the US, you should expect that you and your family members run the risk of being gang raped by government contracted mercenaries.
When the SS first started raping young girls in Germany, they started with the outcasts. The public laughed and said they had it coming. But as they weren't punished, they got bolder and soon any young girl, or boy, was at risk of being gang raped by government back paramilitary members.
[deleted - we realize he's offensive, but we're going to try and stop this now. thanks.]
So does this mean Helliburton/KKK will be big contributors to Mike "we love rapists" Schmuckabee's presidential campaign?
votingvet @ 65:
Thank you, votingvet, for pointing that information out.
Why should it matter if she went over there willingly to work for KBR? Nobody should have to go through the hell that she went through. If we can rail against the use of inhumane torture techniques on alleged terrorists who want to do our country harm, then we should be able to muster up the same sympathy, compassion, and humanity for this woman. Atrocities such as this should never be excused so lightly. The "she had it coming" attitude of some posters here makes me sick.
Dr. Matt @ 72:
Roger and 10-4. :)
BTW, as a "resident" of Houston, Texas, I know many people that work for Halliburton (including an ex-gf). Contrary to common perception, largely their employees are quite liberal and are embarrassed by the connection with Cheney and Iraq.
Pete @ 8:
Pete, I wonder if you are a disguised Al-Qaeda with a Christian name. You think like an Al-Qaeda that pretty young girls are exposing themselves to be raped.
I wonder how many hours/days it will take this week to achieve the 14 points on the route to fascism
this story alone hits 5 of them :(
2. Disdain for the importance of human rights.
5. Rampant sexism.
6. A controlled mass media.
9. Power of corporations protected.
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption.
Compassionate conservatives at work again
If this is "compassionate conservatism," I'd hate to see conservatism when it's pissed off.
There's a real sordid part of the left wing soul that's exposing itself here. It seems that some folks in here think gang rape isn't something to get excised about if it's perp'd against someone whose politics may not be in accord with theirs.
It seems that crime is only crime to these folks if its committed against someone they support and admire politically. If it's OK to blow off a horrible crime like this because the victim isn't anti-war, then what other crimes can be blown off when they're perp'd against non-Leftists?
I am mindful of a friend who told me that "a person's true values are demonstrated by what they tolerate when its done to others." Those who condemn the victim have shown their true values. By the way, they are exactly the same values as those demonstrated by the rapists and by their former CEO.
Well now she can probably only get a job in an Iraqi danceclub.
Oh wait, she's 22, she's too old.
Mercenaries, and if your working in a war zone as a civilian for a privet for profit company your a mercenary, tend to be rather self centered. Lonely and in a combat zone makes rape a side issue. Not being under any legal restraint makes it morally wrong, yet legally mute.
Welcome to the wonderful world of fascist America.
Let's impeach the authorities that let this go on.
votingvet @ 80:
You must be a typical reich-winger because you think you speak for the masses. How obtuse, yet expected.
Dr. Matt @ 75:
Only in America could an employee of the SS be considered a liberal.
Happily making and shipping the Zyklon B does not a liberal make, in my opinion.